At first glance, identical houses have been built in a secluded area in Golbazar Municipality-3 of Siraha. However, these are not houses built for sale. This is a model Dalit settlement built for squatters.

There are 15 two-storey houses in this settlement . There are a total of 90 rooms in these houses including kitchens . There are toilets in each house in the settlement . Not only this, a meeting hall has also been built in the settlement for meetings . But, the surprising thing is that animals, not people, live in it . Non-Dalit people from the surrounding settlements have occupied the houses of the model settlement and kept domestic animals including buffaloes, cows, oxen .

This settlement was built by Golbazar Municipality in the fiscal year 2075/76 with the help of the federal government's Terai Madhesh Samriddhi Program . The municipality has spent an additional amount of 7.5 million in the name of repairing RCC roads and houses in the fiscal year 2077/78 .

However, even though the settlement was built with a total of 30 million government funds, no concrete initiative was taken to settle Dalits here . Due to this, on the one hand, Dalit families are found living in small huts near the model settlement, while on the other hand, non-Dalit people around the houses that have become abandoned due to non-use have occupied them and built sheds.

Although there is no concrete initiative to establish a settlement here, it is not that squatter Dalit families who do not have a home have not come to settle here. However, some Dalit families who have come to live here have also returned after some time. The reason is that the houses are built in a very poor manner.

Very thin zinc sheets have been placed on the houses built in the settlement. Due to this, the houses leak even during normal rain. Similarly, the plywood sheets that should be placed on the upper floors have not been placed. Due to this, water enters the rooms during rain.

Not only this, some unruly people around here keep vandalizing the structures including the houses repeatedly. This is another reason why Dalit families refuse to live in the settlement. According to local Vishal Suchikar, it is the non-Dalits who occupy the houses in the settlement.

'First, Dalits do not want to live here, and even those who come to live have been chased away by causing them a lot of suffering,' Suchikar told Kantipur, 'The Dalits who come to live here are vandalized so that they run away, Dalits run away from here out of fear.'

Despite enduring such atrocities, two squatter Dalit families are still living here. Among them, Shyam Devi Ram's house was also vandalized last week. She and her husband Ramesh Ram currently work in a brick kiln in Lahan.

They have three young daughters. However, Shyam Devi, who was found in her own house last Tuesday, was worried about how to cook dinner at night. Because, when no one was home, someone had broken the mud stove in the kitchen without a door.

Shyamdevi said that two months ago, someone broke the window and spilled the grains including lentils, rice and other vegetables inside the house on the ground. 'We suffer a lot here, stones are thrown at our house at night, we live in fear,' she said, 'When we see this, no one wants to live here, we are unable to move from here due to lack of financial resources.'

Another big problem facing the two families currently living in this settlement is drinking water. A borehole was also installed here when the settlement was built. However, the motor has been stolen from the borehole. Since then, there has been no drinking water here. They have been drinking water from neighboring villages.

This settlement and the houses in the settlement, which were built in the name of a model settlement, have become dilapidated and ugly. The garbage left behind by the houses being used to house livestock is lying on one side, while the settlement is completely covered with bushes on the other.

The municipality, which has spent a lot of government money in the name of a model Dalit settlement, has not considered it necessary to put it into use, and the settlement has turned into ruins today, says local Thepa Paswan. 'All the money has been wasted, this is also a kind of corruption,' he said, 'it should be investigated.'

Local representatives, however, are blaming each other for the Dalit settlement not being used and becoming a ruin. Even though they tried to build a settlement, Dalit families have not come to live there because it is isolated, and the municipality has neglected it, says Dhan Prasad Lama, ward chairman of Golbazar-3.